Lightweights to Race for National Championship

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Coming off a second-place finish at Eastern Sprints, the Yale lightweight crew team is looking to improve at the IRA National Championships held on Lake Natoma in Sacramento, Calif. Competing against the Bulldogs will be the rest of the top eight finishers from the Eastern Sprints. The Bulldogs, narrowly losing to Harvard in their first two meetings, are seeking their second national championship in three years, having last won in 2011.

Yale first races in a four-boat heat Sunday at 8:10 a.m. Racing in Yale's heat will be Cornell, Dartmouth and Penn. The top three boats from their heat will advance to the final, which will be held at 12:45 p.m. The Bulldogs have been hard at work in the two weeks since Sprints. Last year, Yale finished in fourth place at Sprints and successfully used the two weeks to move ahead of Princeton and finish third at IRAs. Yale has historically used the time well, improving a great deal between Sprints and IRAs.

In addition to the varsity eight, the lightweights will race a coxed four in the lightweight four event. The Bulldogs will face crews from Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Milwaukee School of Engineering, MIT, Penn, Princeton and Wisconsin. The boat will race in a heat at 8:30 a.m. Racing in Yale's heat will be Columbia, Cornell, Penn and Princeton. There will be a quick turnaround to the final, which will be held a short two hours later at 10:30 a.m.